Portland Divine Liturgy Book

The Service and Music for the Divine Liturgy according to the usage of the Metropolis Cathedral of Portland

The Service and Music for the Divine Liturgy According

to the Usage of the Cathedral of the Diocese

of Etna and Portland

Introduction, with emendations and revisions, from the First Edition, by

John Peter Edward Presson, Protopsaltes of the Diocese of Etna and Portland

This volume of the Service of the Divine Liturgy is intended as a humble anthology of the emerging style and school of Byzantine chant of the Holy Nativity of the Theotokos parish in Portland, Oregon, the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Etna and Portland, which is part of to the American Eparchy of the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece. It represents the culmination of fourteen years of work towards a more traditional manner o f liturgical chanting in the English language.

Since 1995, the Holy Nativity of the Theotokos parish choir has been compiling an expanded repertoire of pieces from the classical Byzantine tradition of chant, and in 2003, with the blessing of its then-Hierarch, His Eminence, Metropolitan Moses, it redoubled its efforts to establish a classical style of church chanting. It was our intention from the outset to make a clear transition from a choir using loosely-arranged, simplified Byzantine music, rendered in Western staff notation, to a schola cantorum of serious students of the chant repertoire reading music rendered in the Church’s notational tradition and prayerful spirit.

Introductory Addendum for the Second Edition:

This second edition of the Service of the Divine Liturgy (2009 contains a fuller core repertoire, including the verses for the Sunday Beatitudes in all eight modes, the Prokeimena for weekdays, as well as commons for various commonly celebrated Saints’ days, four Cherubic Hymns, replacements for Axion estin (“ἀντὶ [τοῦ] Ἄξιον ἐστίν”) for major Feastdays, four Communion Hymns for Sundays and for major Feastdays, and commons for various days. Minor alterations have also been made to ensure that the current edition constitutes a synthesis of normative usage in Greek Orthodox practice, as well as restoring important elements that have fallen out of practice. Alternate rubrics are, as in the previous edition, provided for chanting concelebrated and Hierarchical Liturgies. Additionally, two expanded appendices have been added to accommodate celebrations of the Liturgy of St. Basil and the two alternative Cheroubika performed on Great Thursday and Great Saturday, respectively.

Both the older Typicon of St. Sabbas Monastery in Jerusalam and the Typicon of the Great Church by Protopsaltes Georgios Biolakes (1888), appointed that the Typica (Psalms 102 and 145 and the Beatitudes) be chanted on Sundays. Both Psalms were adapted directly from scores derived from the informal chant traditions of the Holy Mountain. Although the 1888 Typicon mandates the monastic Typica for Sundays and the Constantinopolitan antiphons for weekdays and Feasts, most Greek parishes continue to follow the older urban practice of employing the antiphons on Sundays. This might be of particular benefit to newer communities, who may not feel competent to chant the full Typica with verses for the Beatitudes. Sets of three Psalms with short refrains were characteristic of the ancient cathedral Rite of the Great Church of Hagia Sophia, which employed them in liturgical processions through the streets of Constantinople, at the end of “Asmatic” Vespers and (initially only on processional days) at the beginning of the Divine Liturgy.

In order to provide for continuity with ancient practice, we have maintained the traditional Second Mode for all of the Liturgy’s short hymns, antiphonal psalmody, and the Trisagion comprising the fixed part of the Liturgy—with the exception of “All Ye That In Christ….”

As in the previous edition, hymns not directly associated with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, e.g., the Great Doxology and concluding troparia of Orthros, general Polychronia for Namedays and Patronal Feasts, blessings of food offerings and various items performed after the Prayer behind the Ambon, and hymns chanted at the end of the Divine Liturgy, which are largely dictated by local parish practice, are not included.

The Service of the Divine Liturgy is intended first and foremost to be a "springboard" for chanters wishing to chant in the English language according to a core selection adapted from the Church's classical and monastic repertoire, as well as newer compositions, and to inspire the composition of new works within the living tradition of Orthodox Byzantine chant. It is not intended as "the last word" in any sense of that expression.